Hi. Does alfine 11 uses the same non-turn washers of alfine/nexus 8? it´s not clear in the docs nor on the online shops pages. I´m looking for non-turn washers for a Surly Karate Monkey frame (horizontal dropouts), and it seems that i need the 6R/6L, is this correct?

New roadie build with alfine 11 and belt drive.
I’ve started making a new road bike. I have an alfine 11 hub, ally fixie frame and carbon forks, a versa VRS11 brake lever and am making it belt drive.
The belt drive is a gates carbondrive belt with DIY stainless laser cut sprockets made on the schlumpf pattern. This means of course that my old bike (alfine 8) will appear on ebay fairly soon….
[img]http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg471/bobc0/bikebits/roadbike.jpg[/img]
If the picture works I’ll put more pulley pics on as I progress.
Bob

Plenty of progress (& money spent). I’ve done 3 trial sprockets & the proper design is now at the laser cutters. The frame has a bolted joint in the rear triangle to let the drive belt in & I bought a brooks B17 saddle for it in black. Here are a couple of pictures – one is photomicrograph of the gates belt which I used to determine sprocket geometry, the other is the sprocket design to go on the alfine11 hub.

Bike all together now, rides great (everything behaving exactly as it ought) Versa ‘STI’ lever and alfine11 seem to make an excellent partnership. The hub puts up some resistance to rolling or pedalling backwards but otherwise seems superb. When I get a nice day I’ll post a photo of the finished bike.
To be honest I’ve only ridden 400yards…. it was raining :^(

OK the bike is together and I’ve had a couple of short rides. I must say that so far, so good; the bike delivers all I had hoped. The Alfine 11 + versa shifter work beautifully and the belt transmission delivers a magic carpet ride. If my home-made timing pulleys keep this up it will be a great success – we’ll see over the next few thousand miles if belt wear is acceptable ;^)

I have been using the bike for 2 years now & probably covered 3000miles on it. Frankly it’s been fansastic. The Alfine 11 hub has not missed a beat (or a gear). I had to remake the crank chainring recently, the Ally original collapsed with fatigue failure(s) & I replaced it with a better designed stainless steel version. That aside, I have done absolutely zero maintenance this year, just pumped up the tyres twice & twiddled with one of the brake barrel adjusters. That’s what I wanted from the bike, consistent great performance at the price of zero TLC! Here’s a picture of the new front pulley
I’ll probably build up a new bike over the winter – I fancy a retro steel frame, drum brakes & a cheaper belt drive system on the next one…. but this bike has been a good ‘un

I have a 2011 Charge Duster 11 (only for the last 3 weeks) and have been on a few rides , so i guess about 150 miles covered. I am encountering a few worrying noises. Klunking under power and some gears (6 & 11 especially) often work at a lower ratio than they should.

Whilst it is not easy to guess what is wrong, I have adjusted the cabling to what I think is optimal, but there is still problem in these few gears, and i am worried by the klunking as i felt that this would be impossible with the oil bath?

returning the bike is an option but a last resort as it is wiggle and there warranty team are not quite up to scratch!

make sure red dots line up on hub. a video on youtube shows how its done on an Alfine 8. You’ll get the idea, just gets your cable adjustment correct. ride it around on the streets before heading into the rough. plus the hub is designed to change when you stop pedalling. halt your pedal stroke particularly when changing into an easier gear, it only needs a moment.

actually, they are yellow marks and when you turn the bike upside down, will be obvious as they then face upward. they are supposed to line up in 6th gear. count down from 11 or up from 1 since you’ll not see the indicator with the bike upside down. The indicator doesn’t exactly line up with the numbers anyway.

Tim, I have ridden it a little more and building confidence in it, but, no matter how much fine tuning, it always seems to have 1 or 2 gears that play up (if 6 is working 11 may not, if 6 and 11 work, 4 doesn’t) but i guess it may still be bedding in. I have sped up the cadence a little. This may help to; identiify if it is a bedding in issue, and, if i am slowing down enough for changes.

Hi Simon, It could be a bedding in issue, try clicking up and down through your full range of gears, whilst standing still, it could be something as simple as the gear cable is to tight or even the chain.

I’ve just had my bike serviced, I have an Alfine 8 fitted to a full sus MTB. The gears were working fine before the bike went into service, after the service when riding up hill some gears seamed to slip when stomping hard on the pedals.

I was told they had removed 2 links from my chain durring the service. After clicking through my full gear range 5 or 6 time the gears stoped slipping and worked fine.

The setup I have is a steel hard tail with a alfine 11 speed shifter, 11 speed hub and fully enclosed cable run. The cable run or shifter is where i feel the problems now lie. I have to adjust this every ride, perhaps it will settle down, and tuning in is not too arduous. I will check back if i get more info.

Just bought a new Specialized Source 11 (Alfine 11 speed belt drive bike.) I have slippage in gear 7 and a dead spot around gear 10 (crank just spins wildly.) Will adjusting the cable solve this problem?

Hi I’m a newbie looking to purchase a Alfine 11. The only issues I have is the price of the service kit (excluding the oil)
Two syringes and some clear tubing for £45 +. The only peace of kit I would need is the bleed nipple that fits the hub. Has anyone done this or looked into and if so could you point me to website were I can buy just the bleed nipple. Thanks Matthew

try a 45 degree or 2-part straight grease nipple.. Take out the spring & tiny ball bearing, and simply screw into the hub (use the o-ring if you like). Then attach 6 inches of silicone tubing and a 30mm syringe (whole setup about AUD$5 for me). Works well! Regards

I’m riding a Tern Eclipse S11i with an Alfine 11. It is a very nice hub. Shifting is smooth and operation is utterly silent. Actually, the entire bike is silent. I am really impressed with the hub, though. I have tried standing on hills and it does not slip at all. There’s more range than my Nexus 8 hub; I rarely get into the top 2 or 3 gears.
Steve

Has anyone disassembled an Alfine 11-speed and can send me tooth counts for the internal gears? This is the one important hub for which I don’t have fractional ratios in my charts of gear ratios at http://john-s-allen.com/gears/hubratios.htm. You may respond as a follow-up comment here or by e-mail to the feedback address at sheldonbrown.com — thanks!

Hi. I need a advice about cranksets. How (or which one) to get the recommended chainline of 42mm on a Surly Karate Monkey frame which has a 73mm BB Shell? I would like a 34T ring, and strong enough for XC. Thanks!!

See http://sheldonbrown.com/chainline.html. There are many ways to achieve the required chainline when there is only a single chainwheel. A Phil Wood bottom bracket offers adjustability, as well, and is available in a version for a 73 mm BB shell.

For those still having problems: I was having hassles with gear 8 (would slip, but only a minute or so after changing gear). Just before replacing the entire hub internals, I wound the adjuster out until the yellow marks were fully out of alignment (sort of ‘shoulder to shoulder’, rather than ‘face to face’, if that makes sense) – about 2 full turns. Problem solved (and if I go too far, Gear 6 plays up). It might be wear in the ‘cassette joint’, but it might also be that individual hubs have variation in the alignment of the yellow dots/bars. FWIW

I finally bought the kit (oil plus tube & nipple) from Estonia. It arrived in a timely fashion, and I am ready for the oil change in another hundred miles or so. See my note here: http://www.ternbicycles.com/forum/verge-s11i-report?page=1#comment-4960
I’m goinf to have an NMR comparison done of the (very expensive) Alfine oil versus automatic transmission oil. I’ll post a note here when I have the results.
Steve

If anyone understands how to read a magnetic resonance scan of lubricants, have a look at the post here: http://www.ternbicycles.com/forum/verge-s11i-report?page=1#comment-7207
I saved a half ml of the Shimano Alfine oil and a friend of mine ran scans of it and a sample of ATF. I’m sure there are other parameters that are relevant (viscosity, for one; ATF is somewhat less viscous) but the scans look fairly similar.
It is hard to imagine any reason that a lubricant that serves and survives in a car transmission would not be adequate for a bicycle.
Any opinions?
Steve

My sg-700, with about 3000km on it, had a couple of ‘haemorrhages’ – overnight, deposited 5+ ml of oil under the bike. That’s a lot when you have only 25ml to start with! So lower viscosity ATF might worsen the problem. I added silicone around the axle as the OEM seal isn’t that great, and the hub hasn’t had a serious leak since the last oil change, tho’ it does ‘weep’ a bit.
All that said, given the price difference between ATF and Shimano oil, I plan to switch lubricant at the next service. Please post any further investigations – yours is the first scientific appraisal I’ve seen. Regards

David, I have been thinking about the same things. Though I have not measured the viscosity of the “Alfine Oil”, my distinct impression was that it is higher than that of ATF. That would make it seem more likely to leak through small gaps in seals, etc. I’m thinking of using 80W-90 hypoid gear oil, which is more viscous. Still looking for alternatives, though.
Cheers,
Steve

Steve, I think your 80W guesstimate sounds good – could your kind buddy add viscosity testing to his resonance scan, so we can be more certain? it’s a (relatively) low-stress mechanical environment, so I don’t think fancy ‘stickiness’ additives will make that much difference…

jsallen: I don’t run my hub much over 100 degrees Celsius, so a single-viscosity oil might suffice… 🙂

Phil Wood oil is about the same viscosity as hypoid gear oil, but it is sticky. Aaron Goss uses it in his hub rebuilds. I’ve used it in Sturmey-Archer hubs, sometimes thinning it with lighter oil in winter. In a hub that is full to the brim with oil, high viscosity could be an issue by preventing pawls from seating, and especially in winter. I wonder whether the Shimano oil is multi-viscosity. Motor oil is multi-viscosity, but it is thinner and intended to be constantly renewed under pressure. Industry info on gear oils: http://www.le-international.com/uploads/documents/079_Gear%20Oils.pdf

I’ve got a few weeks and about 60 or more miles on my Alfine 11 since I changed the oil to “Royal Purple” gear oil, 75W-140. This has about the same viscosity as the green Shimano oil, but only costs about $24 a quart. It’s a synthetic, for whatever that’s worth. The Royal Purple web site says that this oil does not contain sulphur or phosphorus compounds which can corrode “yellow metals” (brass, bronze, copper). I do not know if the Alfine hubs contain these metals, or if they would corrode at the low temperatures the hubs operate at. It seemed like a reasonable thing to avoid a risk.

What I have noticed is that the hub’s performance is no different than before, as far as noise and perceived energy loss go. My *impression* is that the hub shifts better. I usually have a missed shift once a week or two, and since the oil change the hub hasn’t missed once. Of course, this isn’t anything more than my impression, and could have resulted from a change with new Shimano oil too… a bunch of fine metal particles were flushed out during the process.

But, the oil seems at least as good as the OEM stuff, and is much cheaper. It is also possible that the heavier weight of this oil will make it less likely to leak through the seals than automatic transmission fluid.

Thanks for leaping in to the unknown, Steve 🙂 I agree about the metal dust at each oil change, and wondered whether a mild solvent flush (pull off the end cap, run the waste out the bleed hole) might assist the process…

Hi Steve, on your scientific recommendation (!) I’ve gone with Royal Purple 75W-90 (140 not being sold in Australia) (LOL – the dealer wanted to know what use it was for, and seemed to have relied solely on your post in agreeing to release it to me…). In combination with new silicone goo ‘gasket’ to supplement the existing seal, I have no more leaks on the drive side. I need to replace cables before I can say if shifting’s changed for the better…. I also expect to do oil changes more frequently than those suggested by Shimano (currently have about 8000k on the hub, some under fairly severe offroad touring conditions). Regards

I’ve bought a new mechanism, and can see why there’ s so much metallic particle in the used oil – gotta be the least-refined sun gear I’ve seen, just a rough casting. Yes, there’s helical gearing in there, but not much. Ah well, hopefully it’ll just get smoother with use (I’ve just done the 10,000km oil change, and while the (Royal Purple) oil was now black, I could see no metal particles.

I’m still looking for gear tooth counts for the Alfine 11. Don’t throw out your old mechanism! I could give you information on doing tooth counts, if you’re interested, or maybe you could send me the worn-our mechanism.

Because I worked out the slipping problem by (mis)adjusting the yellow bars, I didn’t change the internal mech, so I still have the new one. Let me know what you want counted! (perhaps we could discuss offline, but not sure in what forum!)

Happened on this thread looking for information: After getting a puncture, I removed the rear wheel, but after putting it back along with the Alfine 11 cable, the two yellow marks are slightly misaligned when in gear 6:

[img src=”http://s8.postimg.org/5f4xfoip1/ninja_yellow_dots.jpg”]

The adjuster was already screwed all the way clockwise when I bought the bike brand new, so there’s no longer any room.

Good question Vincent – normally cable ‘stretch’ (from wearing a groove into the housing, erosion of cable ferrules, etc.) would cause the reverse. It’s no biggie to loosen off the pinch bolt and move it 3-4mm down the cable, so you have some adjustment available at the lever end (Shimano doco gives you the exact distance to have the bolt from the cable housing end). You might also check that the cable housing hasn’t got bumped out of its ferrule or adjuster at each end, that the groove on the hub into which the cable goes hasn’t got compressed dirt in it (changing its circumference), and that the hub hasn’t rotated in the dropouts (I rotate the hub forward to take up the slight play in the non-turn washers before tightening the axle nuts). cheers

Just passed the 3,000-mile mark on my Alfine 11. I’ve done 2 oil changes with the Royal Purple (after the first oil change with the “official” oil) and am about to do a third. The hub is still running beautifully. One little issue… the “chain guard” (a plastic piece that snaps onto the hub’s drive-side seal) came off for no good reason that I can determine, and now won’t stay in place. I have temporarily fixed the problem with wire ties to spokes at 90-degree intervals.
Steve

I did my 4th oil change today at 3010 miles. Since I lost about 5ml of oil earlier (bike was stored overnight with drive side down; I added a few ml for good measure), I wanted to make sure there was enough in the hub. I was only able to extract 13ml of old oil (of 25 originally placed), so it was probably a good thing. I was able to (patiently) extract all 25ml of the “flush”. Both the old oil and the flush came out looking clean and particle-free. I have the removed oil sitting on a neodymium magnet to see if there are any really small bits.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of “suction” when removing the old oil, and a lack of “resistance” when injecting the new oil. I the past, I’ve had to “burp” the line, so to speak, to allow the oil to move. I wonder if this reflects a bit of seal wear. I haven’t had a problem with oil leakage on the spokes or rims; still, a slow leak might be possible. I plan to do the next oil change in 500 miles.
Steve

Hi there Steve
8000 km here. No problems at all works flawlessly. 2 oil changes. I have it on a dahon 24″ folding bike that I use for everything, commute, race, travel, dirt roads, everything. No maintenance, no adjustments needed. Perfect. No noises, no oil leaks.

Good mileage there, John! Like you, I’ve had no problems. I did have a few ml of oil leak out when I left the bike folded with the drive side down overnight. I now keep the drive side up, and have had no further leaks. The cable adjustment has stayed the same over all the miles and after removing the rear wheel and replacing it. It’s a pretty bullet-proof system.
Out of curiosity, did you change oil using the “official” oil, or are you using a substitute?
Steve

Hi Steve
Well I only do about 5000 kilometers per year and that means one oil hangs per year so I figured that using Shimano oil is not really that expensive considering the pleasure I get from using the hub, so I decided not to even look for alternatives, it is not worth spending the time and effort to find them.
Cheers
John